BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA--(Marketwire - Jan 18, 2012) - SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCBB: SMME) President & CEO of SmartMetric, Inc., C. Hendrick, announced today that it has combined biometrics and smart card chip to replace the existing less secure "chip and pin" technology.

C. Hendrick, CEO, stated, "The USA is now adopting EMV Cards (SmartCards) and the market base for SmartMetric's enhanced fingerprint activated EMV Cards is set to grow exponentially. While most of the World has adopted EMV SmartCards that use what is euphemistically called "Chip and Pin" and such Cards have seen fraud rates halved in countries using these Cards, they still rely on a combination of both new and old technology, namely a SmartCard Chip that is activated by a user's PIN. While the Chip and Pin Card is a great deal safer than the magnetic stripe card that it has replaced in most advanced places around the world, it is still vulnerable to fraud attack because it still relies on the very vulnerable PIN process for authentication."

The genius of the SmartMetric solution is that it combines two advanced technologies into the Card. Namely, SmartCard Chip and Biometrics rather than the less secure "Chip and Pin." The market size for the SmartMetric "Chip & Biometric" EMV Card is Global and growing very rapidly. Most of the world has fully migrated or is in the process of migrating to EMV chip technology for debit and credit payments.

According to EMVCo, approximately 1.2 billion EMV cards have been issued globally and 18.7 million POS devices accept EMV cards as of Q1 2011. This represents 40.1 percent of the total payment cards in circulation and 71 percent of the POS devices installed globally. EMVCo 2011. Increasing EMV Card and terminal deployments confirm EMV as global payment standard. EMV cards are chip and pin smart cards.

Visa and MasterCard are implementing requirements for U.S. acquirer processors to support merchant acceptance of chip- and-pin transactions, increasing security for cardholders. Visa will require U.S. acquirer processors and sub-processor service providers to support merchant acceptance of chip transactions no later than April 1, 2013. http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1142.jsp

About SmartMetric:
The SmartMetric, Biometric Card Computer provides powerful computing with large memory capacity in a revolutionary size that has taken more than 10 years of research and development. Using the latest in sub micro technology electronics, the company has achieved a level of miniaturization that allows it to release a solution of portable computing power that, combined with SmartMetric's biometric fingerprint in-card scanning technology, is so revolutionary it will change the way business is done and information is handled across a broad range of industries.

For further information please go to the company website: www.smartmetric.com

Safe Harbor Statement:
Certain of the above statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.